Correspondence Re:
Sewer Category Change for Hyde Property
July 24, 2006 Email from John Lyons to County Council
From: Lyons, John H. Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 4:18 PM To: 'councilmember.floreen@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.perez@montgomerycountymd.gov' Cc: 'keith.levchenko@montgomerycountymd.gov'; Lyons, John H.; 'councilmember.praisner@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.silverman@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.subin@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.denis@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.andrews@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.knapp@montgomerycountymd.gov' Subject: WSCCR 06A-OLN-01 (Hyde Property)
Dear Chairman Floreen:
The Greater Olney Civic Association ("GOCA") makes this submission concerning WSCCR 06A-OLN-01 (Hyde Property) in anticipation of tomorrow's Transportation and Environment ("T&E") Committee work session on pending water and sewer category change requests ("WSCCRs"). Below is a copy of an e-mail I sent to every member of the County Council last Wednesday, July 19, transmitting a copy of the written submission GOCA made the night before during the Council's public hearing on the package of WSCCRs. I request that today's GOCA submission be added to the Council's record on WSCCR 06A-OLN-01.
Since the public hearing and GOCA's previous submission to the Council, the Planning Board conducted a lengthy hearing and voted 3-1 on Thursday, July 20, 2006 to adopt and send to the Council its staff's recommendation to deny WSCCR 06A-OLN-01 because the proposal's overwhelming reliance on grinder pumps and pressure sewers "is not consistent with" the 2005 Olney Master Plan ("OMP").
For the reasons discussed during the Board's July 20 hearing, in the Planning Board staff's July 13, 2006 memorandum, and in GOCA's various submissions to the Council and the Board, GOCA strongly believes the Planning Board's recommendation on WSCCR 06A-OLN-01 reflects the correct interpretation of both the letter and spirit of the 2005 OMP based on the history, evolution and intent of the OMP. Therefore, GOCA urges the T&E Committee to endorse and forward to the full Council the Planning Board's recommendation to deny this WSCCR.
In addition, GOCA believes that Council staff's summary description of the Planning Board's recommendation is flawed in two important respects. First, the description incorrectly asserts that it is "the contention by Planning Board Staff that the widespread need for grinder pumps is inconsistent with the Master Plan." In fact, members of the Board stated during last Thursday's hearing that they had reached the same conclusion, so it is now the contention of the Planning Board, not just the Board's staff. As anyone who waited around for and then sat through the Board's lengthy hearing knows, members of the Planning Board had clear recollections of the land use debate surrounding the southeast quadrant ("SEQ") of Olney during the development of the 2005 OMP, including two spirited work sessions on the subject. Council staff's mischaracterization of this important point -- made in boldface type as part of the recommendation paragraph -- misrepresents last Thursday night's debate by the Board and, by implication, diminishes the force of the Board's recommendation, even if that was not staff's intention.
Second, Council staff's suggestion that the 2005 OMP's language is ambiguous and confusing is based on a selective reading of the plan. It completely ignores the long and complicated debate and compromise on SEQ land use issues that preceded the Council's relatively brief consideration of the plan and is now reflected in the Planning Board's recommendation. Moreover, it is a logical non-sequitur to argue, as Council staff does in the first instance, that, because there is some perceived ambiguity in the language of the 2005 OMP, the Council should proceed to grant conditional approval of the WSCCR to allow the subdivision process to move forward. In GOCA's view, this places the cart before the horse. As the 2005 OMP makes abundantly clear (at p. 27), inclusion of the Hyde property in the sewer envelope "would not automatically entitle this property to development on public sewer." GOCA is concerned that conditional approval of this WSCCR will become the basis of an argument that this property is in fact entitled to develop on public sewer, notwithstanding the explicit master plan caveat. GOCA is also concerned that approval of this WSCCR sets a troubling precedent that could have unintended consequences as the other large properties in the SEQ begin to move through the development process.
To reiterate a crucial point, GOCA does not oppose a sewer category change for or development of the Hyde property per se. However, GOCA believes the current proposed Hyde WSCCR based on the use of grinder pumps and pressure sewers for two-thirds of the development violates the 2005 OMP. GOCA therefore urges the Council, beginning with the T&E Committee, to endorse the Planning Board's thoughtful recommendation on WSCCR 06A-OLN-01 and reject Council's staff's recommendation, which appears to be based on little more than the "ends justify the means." GOCA respectfully suggests that the Council should not knowingly disregard the years of time and effort our community poured into the 2005 OMP, and should not facilitate and thereby become complicit in a violation of our brand new master plan.
GOCA believes the applicants and the developer behind Batchellors Forest LLC, Centex Homes, should be required to put forward a WSCCR and preliminary subdivision plan that conform to the spirit, intent and development guidelines of the 2005 OMP, including the requirement to access the existing public sewer system by gravity. If the developer cannot do so, then the property should be limited to well and septic development consistent with the 2005 OMP's caveat (at p. 27) that the Hyde property is not automatically entitled to development on public sewer.
If you have questions concerning this matter, please contact me by reply e-mail or at 202-371-7333.
Respectfully submitted,
John Lyons
President
Greater Olney Civie Association
July 19, 2006 Emails
From: Lyons, John H.
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:47 PM
To: 'MCP-Chairman' Cc: Afzal, Khalid; 'Mary.Dolan@mncppc-mc.org'
Subject: FW: GOCA Submission re WSCCR 06a-OLN-01 (Hyde Property)
Dear Chairman Berlage:
Following is an e-mail transmitting GOCA's submission to the Montgomery County Council concerning WSCCR 06A-OLN-01 (Hyde Property). Please distribute copies of this e-mail string and the attached pdf file to each member of the Planning Board and include it in the package of materials for Item #18 of the Board's July 20, 2006 agenda.
For the reasons discussed more fully below, in the attached submission and in the Planning Board staff's July 13, 2006 memorandum to the Board, GOCA strongly supports the Planning Board staff's recommendation to deny WSCCR 06A-OLN-01 because the proposal's overwhelming reliance on grinder pumps and pressure sewers violates the 2005 Olney Master Plan ("OMP"). GOCA urges the Board to adopt and forward to the County Council a recommendation to deny this WSCCR.
GOCA does not oppose a sewer category change for or development of the Hyde property per se. However, GOCA believes the current proposed Hyde WSCCR based on the use of grinder pumps and pressure sewers for two-thirds of the development violates the 2005 OMP. GOCA believes the developer, Centex Homes, should be required to put forward a WSCCR and preliminary subdivision plan that conforms to the 2005 OMP's requirement to access the existing public sewer system using gravity feeds. If the developer cannot do so, then the property should be limited to well and septic development consistent with the 2005 OMP's caveat (at p. 27) that the Hyde property is not automatically entitled to development on public sewer.
If you have questions concerning this matter, please contact me by reply e-mail or at 202-371-7333.
Respectfully submitted,
John Lyons
President
Greater Olney Civic Association
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From: Lyons, John H. Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:18 PM
To: 'councilmember.praisner@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.silverman@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.knapp@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.perez@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.andrews@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.denis@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.subin@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.floreen@montgomerycountymd.gov'; 'councilmember.leventhal@montgomerycountymd.gov'
Subject: GOCA Submission re WSCCR 06a-OLN-01 (Hyde Property)
Dear President Leventhal and Members of the Montgomery County Council:
As many of you did not attend last night's hearing on the pending package of water and sewer category change requests, for your convenience I attach an electronic version of GOCA's written submission concerning WSCCR 06A-OLN-01 (the Hyde property).
For more than 25 years, one of GOCA's core missions has been to act as a vigilant guardian and steward of the Olney Master Plan ("OMP"). Having dedicated 3 1/2 years of time and energy to the 2005 OMP, GOCA wants to ensure that it is faithfully implemented from the outset.
For the reasons set forth in the attached submission, and as I summarized last night, GOCA strongly believes that the Hyde property WSCCR, as currently proposed, violates the 2005 OMP and should be denied because of its overwhelming reliance on grinder pumps and pressure sewers.
The 2005 OMP involved a grand land use compromise in the southeast quadrant of Olney based on: (1) no expansion or extension of the existing sewer system; (2) rezoning all of the properties to RNC; and (3) only certain large properties (or certain future assemblages) that could access the existing sewer system through gravity feeds would be allowed to develop on public sewer. The 2005 OMP (p. 27) specifically addresses the Hyde property. That discussion questions the feasibility of sewering the Hyde property through gravity and therefore states that inclusion of the property in the sewer envelope would not automatically entitle it to development on public sewer.
The Planning Board's professional staff is recommending denial of the current Hyde WSCCR for the same reasons -- i.e., the use of grinder pumps and pressure sewers on two-thirds of the Hyde property "is not consistent with the Olney Master Plan" See Mary Dolan's Memorandum to the Montgomery County Planning Board at 4 (July 13, 2006), provided as Enclosure B with the attached GOCA submission.
Proponents of the Hyde WSCCR, especially Centex Homes (the developer behind Batchellors Forest LLC), suggest that this WSCCR should be approved, at least conditionally, because certain "understandings," "commitments," or "agreements" were made by some unspecified government agencies or employees to the developer and the Hyde family in the course of Our Lady of Good Counsel High School's preliminary subdivision plan process back in 2002 and 2003. Such suggestions are red herrings. The Planning Board approved Good Counsel's preliminary subdivision plan more than three years ago -- two years before this Council adopted the 2005 OMP, and before the Planning Board Staff's draft of the Olney Master Plan was issued. Given that chronology and the Hyde property discussion in the 2005 OMP, the proponents can point to nothing that entitles them to a sewer category change that is based on the widespread use of grinder pumps and pressure sewers in contradiction of the 2005 OMP. If there were such "understandings," "commitments," or "agreements," then where are they, why are they not reflected in the 2005 OMP, and why does the 2005 OMP include the warning at page 27 that the property is not automatically entitled to development on public sewer? If Centex always planned to use grinder pumps and pressure sewers, rather the gravity feeds, to develop the Hyde property, and if that plan was publicly known, then why does the 2005 OMP not reflect that proposal, and why did the proponents of the WSCCR not work publicly during the master plan process to correct and clarify the discussion of the Hyde property in the 2005 OMP, and why was that proposal not disclosed publicly until DEP circulated the WSCCR package and DEP discussed the developer's proposal to use grinder pumps as part of the Executive's Recommendation?
About the only thing that is clear in this matter is that the conduct of the developer and its representatives over the last five years has been characterized by a complete lack of candor and forthrightness toward the community, the Planning Board and this Council. The Council should not now reward and become complicit in this conduct by approving, even conditionally, the current Hyde WSCCR with its overwhelming reliance on grinder pumps and pressure sewers.
To be clear, GOCA is not opposed to a sewer category change for this property per se, and is certainly not opposed to development of this property. However, GOCA strongly believes the proposed use grinder pumps and pressure sewers to serve two-thirds of the proposed development would violate the 2005 OMP. GOCA believes the developer should be required to put forward a WSCCR and preliminary subdision plan based on a gravity sewer system that complies with the 2005 OMP. If the developer cannot do so, then the property should be limited to well and septic development consistent with the 2005 OMP's caveat that the Hyde property is not automatically entitled to development on public sewer.
If you have questions concerning this matter, please contact me by reply e-mail or at (202) 371-7333.
Respectfully submitted,
John Lyons
President
Greater Olney Civic Association